{"id":341611,"date":"2025-12-11T20:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341611\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:51:10","slug":"rugby-australia-boss-phil-waugh-confirms-interest-in-signing-zac-lomax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341611\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh confirms interest in signing Zac Lomax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby<\/a> Australia boss Phil Waugh confirmed he would consider signing Zac Lomax<\/a>, softening his stance on signing more big-money NRL recruits.<\/p>\n

Lomax has been on a tour of Super Rugby facilities of late, impressing officials at both the Western Force and ACT Brumbies.<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> reports that most officials in the 15-man game view him as a winger and\/or fullback with a kicking game. At 190cm and 105kg, Lomax would also be well suited to the contestable kicking tactics seen in rugby.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Olympic body’s $50m splash in fight against major codes<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Magpies staffer quits after ‘unacceptable’ behaviour<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Kill this guy’: Why $282m Paul fight should be canned<\/a><\/p>\n

Rugby Australia will be pivotal in securing a player like Lomax, with Super Rugby franchises offering a maximum of $220,000 a year.<\/p>\n

The national governing body will need to make up the difference considering he was making over $600,000 a year with the Eels in the NRL.<\/p>\n

\"Zac<\/p>\n

Zac Lomax during an Australia Kangaroos training session.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Lomax could potentially earn up to $400,000 a year without Rugby Australia’s help, if he plays all 15 Tests for the Wallabies in 2026.<\/p>\n

Waugh was said to be hesitant about pulling out the chequebook for another former NRL player, with RA forking out $5 million to sign Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.<\/p>\n

But with the goal of making the 2027 Rugby World Cup final on home soil, Waugh is said to be open-minded about such a move.<\/p>\n

“We consider anyone who has the ambition to play for the Wallabies, and we’ll have conversations with anyone who is willing to be part of what’s going to be a really amazing journey through to 2027,” he told the Herald<\/p>\n

“Lomax is one name, there’s other names that have expressed an interest to be part of the Rugby World Cup journey. We are happy to have pragmatic, sensible conversations.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Schmidt of the Wallabies speaks to Phil Waugh.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Everything we’re doing is around alignment to our strategy, and our strategy relating specifically to 2027 is being part of the final weekend in 2027.<\/p>\n

“So whoever we’re talking to from a talent perspective is around ensuring we’ve got the appropriate talent across our playing cohort to go to that final weekend in 2027.<\/p>\n

“If those interested are additive to the environment, then we’re clearly very interested in having conversations.”<\/p>\n

However, Waugh said RA would not go overboard when spending on such players.<\/p>\n

“For those considering being part of the World Cup, I don’t think it’s necessarily about the money they’ll earn next year and the Rugby World Cup year,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s actually the potential legacy they’ll leave, and then a future earning capacity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh confirmed he would consider signing Zac Lomax, softening his stance on signing more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-341611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}